lFRICA, the third grand division of the globe, in shape bears some 

 resemblance to the form of a pyramid, the base being the northern 

 part of it, which runs along the shores of the Mediterranean ; and the 

 point or top of the pyramid, the Cape of Good Hope. Africa is a pen- 

 insula of a prodigious extent, joined to Asia only by a neck of land 

 about sixty miles over, between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, 

 usually called the Isthmus of Suez ; and its utmost length from north 

 to south, from Cape Bona in the Mediterranean, in 57 degrees north, 

 to the Cape of Good Hope in 34-7 south latitude, is 4900 miles ; and 

 the broadest part, from Cape Verd, in 17-20 degrees west longitude, 

 to Cape Guardasui, near the straits of Babel-Mandel, in 51-20 east 

 longitude, is 4500 miles from east to west. It is bounded on the north 

 by the Mediterranean Sea, which separates it from Europe ; on the 

 east by the Isthmus of Suez, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean, 

 which divide it from Asia ; on the south by the Southern Ocean; and 

 on the west by the Great Atlantic Ocean, which separates it from 

 America. As the equator divides this extensive country almost in the 

 middle, and the far greater part of it is within the tropics, the heat is 

 in many places almost insupportable to an European, it being there in- 

 creased by the rays of the sun, from vast deserts of burning sands. 

 The coast, however, and banks of rivers, such as the Nile, are gene- 

 rally fertile ; and most parts of this region are inhabited, though it is 

 far from being so populous as Europe and Asia. From what has been 

 said, the reader cannot expect to find here a variety of climates. In 

 many parts of Africa, snow seldom falls in the plains ; and it is gene- 

 rally never found but on the tops of the highest mountains. The 

 natives in these scorching regions would as soon expect that the 

 marble should melt, and flow in liquid streams, as that the water by 

 freezing should loose its fluidity, be arrested by the cold, and ceasing 

 to flow, become like the solid rock. 



The most considerable rivers in Africa are the Gambia, which falls 

 into the Atlantic or Western Ocean at Cape St. Mary, and is naviga- 

 ble for ships of 150 tons burthen five hundred miles from its source ; 

 the Senegal, which rises about one hundred miles east of the Gambia, 

 and falls, likewise, into the Atlantic Ocean, about eighty miles north 

 of Cape Verd, after running a much longer course ; the Niger, which 

 rises about ninety miles to the east of the head of the Senegal, and runs 



